CMR Update: A Good Month!

And long last - after three (or more) weeks of other priorities - an update on the amazing progress of the CMR. On one hand, we've made lots of progress - - on the other hand we found out our completion is delayed by 90 days. Yes, we thought we'd be the first clients in construction history (besides those folks who get the benefit of "extreme makeover home edition") to get their project done on time. We were just foolin ourselves. Alas.

I've loaded up a boatload of photos and I wanted them to be in the right order - - but they aren't, so we're going to start with some of the new stuff and then get on to the time elapsed photo journey by area. What I've come to realize is that while I think I am taking similar photos from similar angles every Sunday. I am thinking wrong. I hope you'll get the gist anyways...

First we start with FRAMING! We have:

closets in Henry's room:

Closets and doors frames shown from inside George The Younger's room:

We have bathroom walls that separate the bath from Henry's room:

We have a view of the framing from standing atop the upper level hallway looking down to George the Younger's room door:

We have INTERIOR stairs!!! No more popping upstairs through closets. No more chinese gymnastics. We just take the stairs. Cool beans - but I have to admit a little less exciting or creative.

New stairs leading from rumpus room upstairs to kitchen:

New entry stairs from garage to rumpus room:

New stairs from George the Younger's lair to Henry's room:

Library Views:

We ordered a bunch of light fixtures. We took one over to the house to see if we liked the size. George the Elder holds it up for the inspection. They're bigger than we thought, but we likey!!

Walls getting patched!!

Kitchen Hallway/Stairway:

The "tin giant" gets jammed in the wall. This is the exhaust for our radiant heating / water heater below...

And the "tin giant" gets enclosed...

We got "wall" in the kitchen!

The Upper Hallway:

Note the old framing for the doorway at the end of the hall? Note big giant trough carved in to ceiling?

See trough gone in ceiling? See old door frame removed?

See new ceiling line up close??? We LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Photos of "The Most Important" room in the house.... do you know what it is??


Dec 5th:

Dec 19:

Dec 26:

The Rumpus Room:

Dec 5th - all the radiant heating is installed and secured. Dry wall metal framing installed. Very nifty.

Dec 19: light cans installed, framing for wine celler/cabinet is in!

Dec 26: Insulation started!

Views of a garage:

Dec 5: Radiant heating insulation hanging down. Framing for storage closet is there, but you can still see through to George the Younger's room:

Dec 19: Garage = work room, but more closet framing is done. Radiant heating is all secured.

Dec 26: H finds his old crutches (a memory of exactly one year ago!), wall closed off to George the Younger's room, garage is filled with electrical stuff and drywall!!!

Exterior Stairs:

Dec 5: H climbs up to retrieve an amazon package. Does the house look like a place where mail should be delivered? No, but did I send myself something there? Yes. Dummy.

Dec 11: George the Elder retrieves more packages... this time the parts to the media rack for the rumpus room. We meant to have those delivered there!

Dec 26: After contending with much rain - - the stairs are finally poured! We still don't have a front door, but we got stairs!!!

And those stairs are protected by y: YUP, "Protecto Wrap!!"

Yes, we're delayed. No, we are not happy about it. But, we're moving forward and things are starting to look like house!

There's a big stack of doors and windows in the garage that we hope to see in the next couple of weeks. There's much drywall to be installed. There's railings to be installed. A new back door to order (since it was recently reported that the old back door needed to be either fixed or replaced since a few Sunday's ago someone threw a big ceramic planter through the glass and spend some time tooling around the house smoking cigarettes and enjoying the construction view. Nothing was taken and, according to Foreman Luke, they didn't pee on anything. ???). We are finishing the design of the bathroom vanity and the tile has been ordered after some issue with tile sizes and colors.

All good.

Many Balls

I've ignored my blog the last week (OK - it's been a month, but in the spirit of the season, you could cut me little break). I've been running around like a one-armed wall paper hanger. But, I am nearly done with all the holiday hoo-ha - and, according to my little vintage "days 'til xmas" card board doo-hickey - there are still 10 days left to the big day. If I were you, I'd start collecting canned goods, bottled water and kindling - surely the world is coming to an end. Hopefully armageddon will hold off until at least after the 25th. I mean I put in all the effort and everything.

I will be back to posting shortly. There are lots of new updates about the CMR. A teaser: We got our new completion schedule and we are delayed by more than a month. Me = unhappy. I. am. over. this. temporary. living. crap. But, it is what it is and I can't spend too much time grousing about it. I've got presents to wrap.

What is that you say? Getting all the presents wrapped is part of finishing up on the holiday hoo-ha? Fine, then. I'm not really ready. I'm only mostly ready. Feel free to hold off on stocking up on the canned pork and beans. It seems we all have lots of time left.

The Hills are Alive

Went down to the Castro Theater last night to participate in the Sound of Music Sing-a-long. One thing's for sure... I'll be making this an annual event! What a hoot.

The event was planned by the music teachers that are coordinating the trip to Salzburg this coming summer. They thought it would be grand to get all the kids there to see where they were going. A nifty note is that the "house" that is used for the front of the VonTrapp home is now the Orff institute where the festival will be held. Pretty cool.

And although the evening was planned for the kids, I have to admit that I think that the adults has a much better time! It was a like Rocky Horror Picture Show meets The Sounds of Music meets the eclectic and wildly create Castro District. How would this get any better?

There were many nuns, a woman holding a "moon beam in her hand", lots of dirndls, and one lonely goat"her". We got goody bags when we went in the door. They included:

• A piece of drapery fabric (so you could shout - "THE DRAPES!! USE THE DRAPES!")
• A small sprig of fake edelweiss (you know what that's for and you got to use it TWICE!)
• An invitation to the VonTrapp party so we could all waive it in their air while we joined in the final "goooood niiiiiight"
• A party popper to pop when Maria and Cpt. smooched for the first time (although this was used by many throughout the film whenever there was sexual tension - - and geeze if there wasn't a plethora of it in the film? Who knew?)
• A couple o' cards to help up remember the work flibberty gibbet and will o' the wisp.

There was MUCH audience participation. I wish I would have written down some of the stuff that was shouted out - but let's just say most of it went over the kids heads but was ridiculously funny. And, best of all - you could sing! Every word, every part, every song! Not only could you sing - but you were encouraged to sing. Loudly. With Gusto. Even when you were way out of your range! Loved it. I swam around in a big pool of happy singing.

Best thing of all? The words were right there for you to see. A bouncing ball above the words would have been cool, but even the Latin words for the nuns during the first abbey scene were up there. Cool beans. And yet, since I have seen TSOM about...hmmm....as many times as Joan Rivers has had plastic surgery - - my secret goal was to sing all the words without looking at them on the screen -- sort of like going to a foreign language film where you know the language so you don't need to read the subtitles. And, (sniff/nose wipe) if I don't say so myself, I am DAMN proficient in that arena. I exceeded my personal expectations. My weakest moment was the goat herder song - - but beyond the yodeling who really can say they know all the words to that one. The fun is in the yodeling, right?

And guess what? Turns out that there's more of these bad johnnies coming up in the next year: West Side Story, Mama Mia and Hairspray. Me thinks I'm going to be a regular. Next time calls for costumes and cocktails! The hills are alive!!!!

Salzburg or Bust!

In breaking news, today Henry was selected as one of 17 middle schoolers who now comprise the San Francisco School's music ensemble that will head to Salzburg in July 2011 to participate in the international symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Orff Institute.



He is OVER THE MOON with excitement. He squealed like a little girl and jumped up and down when he heard the news. So very Henry. This is something that he really wanted to be involved in and it's a chance for him to showcase what he loves. Good on him!




Congrats to Henry. Our budding international musician!! Way to go big guy.